Soul
Pikmin Spirits appear every time a Pikmin is killed by a hazard or enemy. Although they are not visible when a Pikmin dies by falling into an abyss, it can be assumed that they do appear, but are out of sight.
They roughly resemble a Pikmin's shape; however, they lack feet and leaf, bud or flower, and any identifying characteristics such as the Red Pikmin's nose. Their appearance is slightly transparent and they vary between the games. They emit a soft, mournful cry as they ascend.
In Pikmin 1, every Pikmin has a blue spirit, irrelevant of the colour of the Pikmin itself, while spirits in Pikmin 2 are representative of the dead Pikmin's color. They also differ in size, most notable between those of Purple and White Pikmin. In the New Play Control version of the first game, only the tail is blue.
Enemies
Enemy's spirits have a pink-purple colour and look like a bubble with a more transparent "tail" trailing behind. Two holes resembling eyes are visible near the shape's centre. Bulbmin produce a smaller version of this type of spirit when they die. There is also a minor glitch involved with enemy spirits: if an enemy is killed and the camera is rotated so that the beast is no longer on-screen, the enemy spirit will not ascend until it is once again visible for the camera on-screen. In Pikmin 2 these spirits make an eerie sound when ascending.
In Pikmin 2, three enemies do not release spirits when beaten. These are the Gatling Groink, Ravenous Whiskerpillar and the Spotty Bulbear. This is a suggested reason as to why the former two can regenerate health over time, and 'come back to life' after being beaten, that being that they never really die, but are just knocked out. The Ravenous Whiskerpillars will squirm about when being carried by Pikmin, but it cannot come back to life and attack Burgeoning Spiderworts.
Gallery
- Pikminghosts.jpg
In the first Pikmin game, all spirits of Pikmin were bluish white.